


face the dawn

by helsinkibaby



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, First Time, Fluff, Het, Morning After, Rarepair, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23844970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: The morning after the night before, Steve and Noelani talk.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Noelani Cunha
Kudos: 27





	face the dawn

**Author's Note:**

> So, with the announcement of the show ending and Europe being far behind, I got back into watching season 10 to see how it ended. And then with quarantine, and Sky strip screening some earlier seasons, I began to watch them too. I then began reading message boards and episodes discussions and there was one person who said they wanted Steve with Noelani and that made me go “huh” and now here we are. Even though I haven’t seen the finale yet and know how it ended. When has that ever stopped me? 
> 
> For gen prompt bingo, prompt, being silly

The sun was just peeking over the horizon when Noelani heard a scamper of excited footsteps coming towards her. She barely had time to turn around before Eddie was on top of her, his tongue licking her face in a frenzy and she rocked back in the sand a little as he panted happily, making his appreciation known. 

"You found her... good boy." Noelani looked around then, saw Eddie's owner coming up behind her, his face impassively neutral. Steve stepped off the lawn at the back of his house, his bare feet sinking into the sand and made his way towards her. Her stomach swooped at the sight of him and for once it had nothing to do with his good looks and a whole lot more to do with the situation they found themselves in. "Hey," he said when he was standing beside her, looking down at her. "I woke up and you were gone." 

From someone else, it might have been a reproach. From Steve, she knew it was a question. "I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep," she said honestly. "I didn't want to disturb you..."

"I wouldn't have minded." There was a soft smile on his face, the kind of smile that she didn't often see when she encountered him in a professional capacity. For that matter, she didn't often see it when they were in a social setting either. Then again, she didn't usually see him looking like this, standing on the private beach at the back of his house just after sunrise, him clad only in a pair of boxer shorts, hair sticking up and scruff slightly more pronounced than usual. Sleep rumpled was a good look on him, she decided and when he dropped down onto the sand beside her, it looked even better. "I just thought I'd tired you out pretty well last night." He was teasing her and it made her smile. "Nice shirt, by the way." 

It was his shirt, grabbed off the floor as she passed on her way for some fresh air or maybe just plain old escape. Because when she'd woken up first that morning, had turned her head to see Steve McGarrett lying beside her, all she could think of was that he looked like some kind of Greek God and that she, most decidedly, did not. The idea of lying there and waiting for him to wake up, the danger of seeing disappointment in his eyes... she hadn't been able to bear the thought of it. 

But she hadn't been able to stomach the thought of completely running out on him either. The beach had been a type of compromise. 

"I like it," she said, shifting so that she could wrap her arms around her knees before reaching up to adjust her glasses. 

His next words were a surprise. 

“Okay, so what’s bothering you?” 

Noelani looked at him askance because she'd thought she'd done a pretty good job of keeping her doctor's face - blank and bland and neutral - in place. “Nothing.” 

Steve shook his head, actually looking amused, a little smile playing around the corners of his mouth. “You know you have a tell?” 

“A what?” 

“A tell. It’s when-”

“I know what a tell is.”

She knew she sounded impatient but if Steve was taken aback by her tone, he didn’t show it. Instead his lips twitched again. “When you’re upset,” he said, pointing a finger at her eyes, “you fix your glasses, even if they don’t need fixing.” 

“I do not-” Even as she said the words, Noelani’s hand was reaching up to her glasses, something she only realised when the twitch of Steve’s lips became a full grown - and heart stopping and that really wasn’t fair when she was trying to be mad at him - grin. “Shut up.” 

Steve pressed his lips together but that didn’t do a thing to stop the twinkling in his eyes. Which, damn it, was doubly not fair. “How do you know that?” she demanded and was met with a shrug in response. 

“I pay attention.” He paused, held her gaze as if to let that sink in. “So... what’s wrong?” 

She shook her head. “I’m just being silly.” 

“Noelani... if it’s serious enough to upset you, then it’s not silly.” He wasn’t going to let it go, she realised. “Tell me.” 

Noelani took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she looked across the beach to the ocean beyond. Maybe it would be easier to do this if she didn’t look at him. “Last night...” she began, “was...” 

Her voice trailed off as words failed her. Steve leaned in closer to her, bumped her shoulder with his. “I think spectacular is the word you’re going for.” 

She laughed at that, looked down and shook her head and it was easier somehow, suddenly, to look back up and look into his eyes. “Yes,” she allowed. “It was.” The all too brief smile she got in return was better than the grin had been. “But Steve... let’s face it. I’m not exactly your type.” 

Steve’s eyebrows drew down as his brow furrowed in a frown. Noelani knew that look, it was the look he often got on a case when the findings she was giving him just didn’t make any sense. Which happened more than it should, but then, that was the Five-O way. “Noelani...” He drew our her name. “You are brave and fierce... you’re smart, you’re loyal, you’re kind and caring, a great friend, you get the job I do, how crazy it can be... and if all that wasn’t enough, you’re also, by the way, beautiful.” By the time he finished speaking, her cheeks felt like they were on fire and she couldn’t look away from him if she’d wanted to. “What part of all that, exactly, is not my type?” 

Noelani raised one eyebrow. “The part where I’m not some tall and willowy Sports Illustrated swimsuit model type?” 

Steve shrugged. “So when my back goes out and I can’t bend to kiss you, we’ll stand you on a box.” He sounded supremely unconcerned and his whole deadpan delivery made Noelani laugh. It was a genuine laugh too, and she leaned into him, snuggling against him when he used her movement as an excuse to wrap his arm around her shoulder. “That’s better.” Running his other hand across her cheek, his index finger ended up under her chin, tilting her head up. “This is what I want,” he said. “You’re what I want.” He narrowed his eyes, as if something had just occurred to him. “Well, that and to find out what else makes you make those little noises you made last night...”

“I do not make-” Noelani protested, stopping quickly when he began nibbling a path down her neck and she made one of those noises that he might have been talking about. It was high pitched and highly undignified but when she felt his laughter against her skin, she couldn’t quite find it in her to care. 

"One," he muttered against her skin, a smile in his voice that was quite at odds with the way that he laid her back on the sand, his lips moving downwards until he found the spot that made her gasp against him. 

"Tw-hey!" Steve jumped against her, moving back and turning his head as he let out an indignant shout. Noelani looked over his shoulder, biting her lip against her laughter when she saw Eddie behind Steve, the edge of Steve's boxer shorts caught firmly between his teeth, his feet firmly entrenched in the sand as he tried to pull Steve back. "Let go." Eddie did as he was told but he looked over at Noelani, then cocked his head at Steve and gave him what Noelani would swear was a reproving look. "Don't look at me like that, buddy... I'm not hurting her." Eddie cocked his head in the other direction, gave a whine and Noelani didn't even try to hide her giggles after that. "Really, I'm not. She's enjoying it." Steve looked in her direction, frustration stamped all over his face. "Will you please tell him?" 

"I'm fine, Eddie." Noelani reached out a hand and Eddie actually climbed over Steve, squeezing in to stand in between them and licking her face. Which made Noelani laugh even harder, all the more so when Steve pursed his lips in disgust. 

"C'mon," he said, standing up smoothly, holding out a hand to Noelani. "Let's go inside. To my room. With a door that locks." He directed that comment firmly to Eddie. 

Noelani let him take her hand, let him pull her up and she made a great show of taking her time brushing the sand off her shirt and her legs. Because of the size difference, Steve's shirt almost hit her knees, was falling off one shoulder and she didn't miss the way Steve's gaze travelled down her body and back up again, how his gaze shifted from a combination of frustrated and amused to almost hungry. "Still like the shirt?" she asked, pulling at the collar, already knowing the answer. 

"Yes." The answer was a growl, the way he pulled her close, fitting his lips over hers, was another conversation entirely, one that was concluded minutes later in the privacy of his bedroom. "But I prefer it off."


End file.
